How consultants manage their time

One of the most valuable commodities in the NHS is the individual consultant's time. This is what patients, their relatives, and other staff want most, and they complain that it is not sufficiently available. We increasingly examine the use of our resources and the quality of our service but do not pay sufficient attention to this variable. This article aims to highlight the importance of the clinician's time and suggests that it should be subjected to periodic audit, along with other aspects of the service, and that the duration of face-to-face contact with patients should be introduced as one of a series of quality measures.